Linares R14: All games drawn, Anand wins Super-GM

3/7/2008 – Four players had a chance to at least tie for first – the preconditions were in place for a thrilling last round. This might have seemed especially likely, given the very low percentage of draws (by super-tournament standards) so far, but as it turned out “safety first” was the rule of the day. Anand retained his half point lead, Magnus Carlsen came second. Full illustrated report.

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Morelia-Linares 2008

The Morelia-Linares tournament took place from February 15th to 23rd February
in Morelia, Mexico, and from 28th February to 7th March in Linares, Spain. The
second half of the event ran from February 28th to March 7th, 2008, with the
games taking place in the Theatro Cervantes in the Centro Histórica de
la Cuidad Linares.

Round fourteen report (final)

Anand vs Topalov – would the World Champion clinch first with a win in
this game?

With a win over Veselin Topalov, world champion Viswanathan Anand would have
clinched clear first, but his choice to play to meet Topalov’s Najdorf
with 6.Be2 e5 7.Nb3 Be7 8.Bg5 indicated his desire for a quiet life. The game
followed yesterday’s tragic Radjabov-Shirov game through 11.0-0-0, but
here Topalov varied with 11…Qb6 (instead of 11…Nd4), offering a
pawn. Anand rightly returned it with 15.Qd2, resulting in an opposite-colored
bishops middlegame where neither side had much to play for. The result was a
quick draw, and at worst for Anand a tie for first place with Magnus Carlsen.

The winner of Morelia-Linares 2008: World Champion Viswanathan Anand

This would happen only if Carlsen defeated Teimour Radjabov, who once again
defended the black pieces with the Schliemann Defense. Carlsen repeated the
line Topalov employed in round nine, like Topalov achieving a position with
no losing chances and some chances to press. Press he did, for 69 moves, but
the pawn-up rook ending the players entered on move 42 offered White no real
winning chances, and Carlsen had to settle for second place. Still, it was a
terrific result for him, especially in conjunction with his performance in the
Corus tournament a month ago (he tied for first). Rumor has it he will be number
five on the next FIDE rating list. Be afraid…be very afraid!

Magnus Carlsen, soon number five in the world?

[Kevin Spiteri of Marsaxlokk, Malta notes that in our calculations we may
not have considered the rounding. "If FIDE round the ratings to the nearest
integer (as I am assuming, I might be wrong), Carlsen will be fourth. Topalov's
2767.2 will be rounded down to 2767. Carlsen's 2766.9 will be rounded up to
2767. That will leave both players tied at 2767, with Carlsen taking fourth
position, since he has played 29 games, Topalov having played 27 games."]

Carlsen’s second place finish would have been shared if Levon Aronian
had managed to defeat Peter Leko, but Leko was never in danger on the white
side of an Anti-Marshall. The players clearly didn’t realize it, as they
had been using responsible amounts of time, but they were exactly following
a 2007 game between Laurent Fressinet and Arkadij Naiditsch all the way through
White’s 29th move. The earlier game was drawn in 36 moves, but Aronian’s
choice must have been a serious improvement, as it led to a peaceful handshake
two moves earlier.

Finally, Alexei Shirov and Vassily Ivanchuk put an end to what must have been
a very disappointing tournament for both men. This game seemed headed for a
draw almost from the start, as Shirov turned the MacCutcheon French into an
Exchange Variation on move five. Nevertheless, it was Shirov who did what pressing
there was in the game, trying to avoid exchanges, playing the prophylactic b4
and the space-gaining 20.g4, 24.h4 and 25.h5, but the symmetrical pawn structure
and the open e-file led them to share the point as well. This is a tournament
I’m sure they’ll both want to forget: Shirov, because he came in
last place (with Peter Leko), and Ivanchuk because he lost two games he was
winning – had he won them and everything else remained the same, he’d
have tied for first. They’ll be back.

See also

3/27/2018 – Sergey Karjkin didn't succeed in posing serious problems for Ding Liren and after, what he called, a "terrible blunder", he had to scramble to save a draw. That left Caruana in great shape to win the tournament. Mamedyarov struggled to find winning chances with black against Kramnik, but in the end that game ended drawn as well. Caruana, needing only a draw, was in command against Grischuk and even won the game to finish in clear first by a full point! | Photo and drawings by World Chess

See also

1/28/2018 – Magnus Carlsen won the 80th Tata Steel Masters which was decided in a blitz tiebreak over Dutch number one Anish Giri. The players contested two blitz games with 5 minutes plus 3 seconds per move, with no sudden death Armageddon game needed. Vidit played solidly to earn a draw that was enough to win the Challengers, as Korobov could not manage to pull off a win with black on-demand. | Photo: Alina l'Ami TataSteelChess.com

Video

Former World Champion Mikhail Botvinnik liked to play the French and once described it as a 'difficult and dangerous opening'. But in this 60 minutes video IM Andrew Martin suggests an aggressive and little-used idea of the renowned attacking player GM Viktor Kupreichik to counter the French: 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 c5 4.c3 Nc6 5.Be3!?. Andrew Martin uses the games of Kupreichik to show why this line could catch many French aficionados unprepared and is very dangerous for Black. Attacking players will love this line and the unusual complications that it promotes.